Commission under pressure amid push to ban conversion therapy
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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/23076317
More than a million EU citizens are pressuring the Commission to ban conversion therapies – but the path to a ban is anything but straight.
Conversion therapy, condemned by UN experts as a form of “torture,” encompasses practices that aim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity – typically from non-heterosexual to heterosexual – through psychoanalysis or other methods. A 2024 study by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) found that 2% of LGBTQ individuals had been subjected to conversion attempts, and 5% had been offered such “therapies.”
Currently, only seven EU countries – including France, Germany, and Belgium – have enacted partial or complete bans. Elsewhere, the practice remains legal or poorly regulated.